Rocky Mountain Gamer: How to choose between PS4, Xbox One

Microsoft's Xbox One is launching with three high-profile games: "Ryse: Son of Rome," "Forza 5" and "Dead Rising 3." (Courtesy photo)

November is upon us, and with it come two new game consoles, Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One. As such, gamers are eating ramen noodles and generic cheese puffs, saving their pennies for the expense of buying one, or both, of these new systems.

But if you can buy only one, which one is right for you?

If you want pure power, the PS4 sports some of the best tech on the market. Though both machines contain custom 8-core AMD processors and 8GB of RAM, the PS4 uses more advanced components.

The RAM, for instance, is DDR5 versus DDR3 for the Xbox One. The more advanced RAM, combined with a graphics processor, means that the raw graphics processing power of the Xbox One is only about 71 percent of the PS4.

Of course, sheer displays of power mean very little, particularly when you're talking about two game consoles more powerful than the entire computing force of NASA at the start of the shuttle program.

Both of these systems should be able to play games good enough to melt your brain for years to come. It's likely you care more about what those games will be like, on launch day and beyond.

This is particularly important since neither of these systems supports any native backward compatibility. If you want to keep playing PS3 and Xbox 360 games (and who wouldn't?), you will have to keep those systems.

The majority of the launch releases comes from third-party publishers and will appear on both consoles. "Battlefield 4," "Call of Duty: Ghosts," "Assassin's Creed IV," "Madden NFL 25" and "FIFA 14" are just a few of the games you'll be able to enjoy regardless of which system you grab.

First-party exclusives, however, can make or break a console launch, and this year the Xbox One wins this one hands down.

Sony's Playstation 4 offers more power at a lower cost. (Courtesy photo)

That's partially because Sony has delayed one of its launch titles, "DriveClub," until 2014. This game was positioned to face off against Microsoft's venerable "Forza 5," which looks as if it will be another fantastic franchise entry.

This leaves Sony with only two retail exclusives at launch -- "Killzone: Shadow Fall" and "Knack" -- as well as two downloadable titles.

Microsoft, however, has three high-profile retail titles at launch: "Ryse: Son of Rome," "Forza 5" and "Dead Rising 3," as well as a couple of killer downloadable games, "Killer Instinct" and "Crimson Dragon."

This gives Microsoft a distinct advantage, at least in the early months, because the one area where the PS3 was ahead of the 360 was in online service.

The PlayStation Network (PSN) has long offered free online multiplayer while Microsoft has charged for this privilege via its Xbox Live Gold service.

With the PS4, those wanting to play against others online will need to pony up for a PSN Plus subscription. The cost of $50 per year is $10 less than Microsoft's service but still will likely upset those who are used to receiving these benefits for free.

All these things might seem to stack the cards in Microsoft's favor, but there is still one thing Sony has working for it -- price.

The Xbox One will release for $499 versus the $399 price tag for the PS4. That hundred bucks gets you the new, more advanced, Kinect camera. And while the Kinect is a nifty toy, Microsoft has yet to provide a must-buy that takes advantage of it.

Sony's new PS4 camera will offer similar functionality and will cost about the same, $100, as an optional add-on. And that's $100 that can buy a game and maybe an extra controller.

So, in the spirit of the annual election season, I will throw out my endorsement for the Xbox One.

I think the first six months will certainly favor Microsoft in terms of exclusive games, and the promise of "Halo" in the future will keep gamers excited.

This, however, assumes that all the promised games release as planned and play as well as their demos did, because the PS4 has 'inFAMOUS: Second Son" coming in the late spring, and that could be the momentum shifter Sony needs.

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